Auld Lang Syne
by IronAmerica
Summary: Yondu still remembers the rituals for the new year.


Happy New Year, folks. Let's kick if off with some bitty!Yondu.

Trigger Warnings: Surprisingly, none.

- o – o -

Auld Lang Syne

Yondu doesn't know any off-worlder traditions, or even if they celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of the next. Master Reban won't teach him any, and every time Yondu tries to look them up, he finds that the information's been blocked from his padd. What he knows for sure, though, is that today is the last day of the old year and tomorrow will be the start of the new year. He needs to let go of the troubles of this year so he can have good luck in the next. (Yondu wonders if he's stupid for thinking next year will be better than this year. Master Reban's still gonna beat him, and his planet's still not gonna be free and his family will still be _dead_.)

Still, he steals a candle from Master Reban's room and pilfers a match from one of the off-worlder servants just before he's supposed to go to bed so he can complete the rites before the year ends. He should have started preparing weeks ago, so he had time to let go of _all_ of his troubles from this year, but it's not like Anthos will punish him for not being able to do all of the rites of year's end. It's ex…exten…really _hard_ circumstances, and that's always excusable.

As he's led back to his room, Yondu wonders if everyone in the slave quarters – where he's been banned from visiting since Ool died – will be celebrating the end of the year. They'll have a _proper_ altar, most likely, and they'll be able to make the right offerings. It's easier in a group to get things for the year's end. But Anthos won't punish him for not being able to do everything like everyone else is going to be doing tonight.

The seven year old pays special attention to cleaning his feet and hands when he's finally allowed to bathe, late in the evening. You're supposed to enter the year with no worries. You spent the entire year walking through your troubles and carrying them in your hands if you couldn't outrun them, so you had to wash them off. (He cries when he remembers doing this with his papa and his male relatives last year's end, turning all the troubles of the year into jokes and washing them away like the dirt they were cleaning off.)

When he's locked into his room for the night, Yondu pulls the candle and the pilfered matches out from under his cot and begins writing down as many of the year's troubles as he can fit onto a sheet of paper, which he tucks back under his mattress until he needs it again.

Yondu sets the candle carefully on the crate next to his cot and kneels in front of it, bowing low until his forehead touches the ground. He unbends and stares at the candle for a few seconds before bowing again. When he completes his little ritual for the sixth time, he pulls a pilfered match out of his tunic and lights the candle, bowing six times again.

It's the start of the new year. Or rather, it'll be the start of the new year by the time he's finished.

He should be doing this with his family or, barring that, with close relatives. But his papa's dead, and so's aba and Mordu and his cousins from the west and his other cousin Ool. He doesn't have any relatives to bring in the new year with, but at least he still remembers enough to do the ritual himself. He sighs as he pulls a slip of paper out from under his mattress and holds it up to the flame to burn it.

"I don't know if my words will reach you," Yondu says, watching the paper burn, "but I really miss you, aba. And papa. I miss both of you, and Mordu" He sniffles and drops the paper onto the dish he put the candle on before lighting it. "If…if Ool's there too, tell her I wish I coulda come with her." He wipes away a few tears and sniffles some more. "I'm tryna be good, papa, I really am. Master Reban's makin' it so hard though, and I just wanna go _home_…"

Yondu doesn't even manage to finish letting go of the last year's problems like he's supposed to. The candle burns out while he cries and chirps in distress, homesickness settling over him like a thick, chokingly wet blanket.

The servants find him the next morning, fast asleep on the floor in front of a melted candle.

- o – o -

So, what'd you think? Good? Bad? Got any New Year wishes for yourself or for Yondu?

(The author also hopes that all your best New Year's wishes come true.)


End file.
